


The Eternal Drumbeat

by IowaGuy1979



Series: The Long Tomorrow [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Immortality, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:47:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29648058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IowaGuy1979/pseuds/IowaGuy1979
Summary: "What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors"Robert E.  Lee
Relationships: Kate Marsh/Chloe Price
Series: The Long Tomorrow [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2178624
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	The Eternal Drumbeat

December 25, 1777

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Chloe Price had never been so fucking cold in her entire life. She glanced around the hut. The last of her roommates had died yesterday. For a brief second, she was glad, because women who were caught in uniform weren’t treated well, to say the least. 

‘Dammit, people are dead, and you’re fucking happy about it?’, she thought. “Still brainsick, as ever, Price. And of course, fluoxetine won’t be invented for another 200 goddamn years”, she snorted.

She thought about her Kate, worrying at home about her. At that thought, Chloe’s mind drifted back, to a few years ago.

They had been walking in downtown Philadelphia, Chloe treating Kate to a shopping day. A neighbor of theirs called to them. “Ah, if it isn’t Master and Missus Caulfield!” 

“Hello, Jeremiah”, Kate smiled, as he joined them. “How’re you, today?”

“I’m the happiest man on Earth, of course. Going to ask my Maxine to marry me, tonight!”

“Good!”, Chloe smiled.

“Tell me, Ma-”

“It’s Cole, remember?”, she said.

“OK, Cole, then. How did you enchant miss Joyce, here?”

“Well, it was quite a while ago.”, she smiled. Kate was trying very hard not to laugh. “But, I just told her the truth. That she completed me, was the other half of my soul, and that I would love her beyond the veil of Death itself.”

Kate’s eyes glistened, as she squeezed her wife’s hand.

The man looked as if inspiration had struck. “Yes, yes! Thank you so much! See you later!”, he shouted, as he walked away.

“I remember when he was still in the crib.”, Chloe said.

As the memory faded away, Chloe grimaced. A few years ago? More like 15. That neighbor had died in a battle the month before. She had been there, watching him call out for his wife, at the end.

With a sigh, she got up. It’d be her turn for watch, soon. Rubbing her body to get what little circulation she could into her system, she headed to the door. 

"Merry fuckin' Christmas.", she muttered.

Ohio

April 2, 1861

Kate kneaded dough for another loaf of bread. The last time she had gone to the general store, in town, some of the men had been talking about the possibility of war.

“People just can’t seem to stop hating each other”, she said, shaking her head. When she had mentioned that talk to Chloe, Chloe had replied, “Dammit, these kids are going to break the country I helped put together.” She had smirked at Kate. “See, this is why we can’t have nice things.”

The front door of the farmhouse closed. ‘Chloe must be finished with the cows’, Kate thought. Chloe stepped into the kitchen. “Hot as fuck out there, way too hot for April.”

“Well, speak of the angel, I was just thinking of you, beautiful.”

“It’s ‘speak of the devil’, Katydid.”

“There is nothing devilish about you, Chloe Elizabeth Price. Unless, we’re talking about the bedroom.”, Kate leered.

“Katherine Beverly Marsh! What would your mother say?”. The taller blonde said in mock outrage.

“Dunno, she hasn’t been born yet.” The two shared a quiet laugh.

Chloe slid her arms around the shorter woman, who leaned back against her with a happy sigh.

“I love you so much, Bunny. If Max had just sent me back, I think… no, I know. I would have tried to end it.”

Kate let out a gasp. “Chloe! Don’t say that!”

“I’m sorry, love, but, it’s true. You, literally, are what’s kept me from not going insane, kept me alive. I’m so goddamn glad to have you.”

“That’s a dollar for the swear jar.”, Kate smiled.

“The rose is red, the violet’s blue  
The honey’s sweet, and so are you  
Thou are my love, and I am thine  
I drew thee to my Valentine  
The lot was cast and then I drew  
And Fortune said it shou’d be you”

“It’s not Valentine’s day, but, I never get tired of hearing that, Chloe.”

“And I’ll never get tired of saying it.”

Ten days later, war came calling, and Chloe answered, as she always did.

Reims, France

March 11, 1916

Chloe sat down in the pub, sighing heavily. Blood, bodies, mud. It was all starting to blur together. It was one thing to read about the Civil War or World War One in history class, another fucking thing entirely to live it. The horrors never really changed, no how many battles and wars she fought in. The gunfire, it always reminded her of drums. A beat she'd never get used to.

And Kate was in this shit, too. She was working in a hospital a couple hour’s drive away.

The bartender said. “People say that this will be the war to end all wars.”

“People say a lot of shit.”, Chloe grunted.

The door to the pub, opened. As she turned around, Chloe’s mouth dropped.

It was Max Caulfield, wearing a nurse’s uniform! Chloe was so shocked, she didn’t hear the woman's voice.

“Hello. My name’s Victoria Chase”, said the small, blue eyed, brunette. “How’re you?”

Chloe mind snapped out of it’s shock. Of course it wasn’t Max! But, she sounded just like Max did. Of course, leave it to the universe to give a clone of Max, the name of the girl that had hated her.

“J...J..just fine. William Wells’s my name, call me Billy. You been here long?”

“Just came over few months month ago. France is sure different from Tillamook, that’s for sure.”

“Oregon girl, then?”

“Born and raised”, the brunette said, smiling in the same way that Max always had. Bright and cheerful, and full of joy. “You, too?”

“No, from Indiana. I have relatives out that way, though. Second cousin that lives in Bend.” She nodded to the bartender, and turned to Ma- the other woman. “What’ll you have?”

“A cup of tea, please?”

“What?”, Chloe said. “I thought you were from Oregon, not Oxford.”

The brunette rolled her eyes. “I’ve just gotten a taste for it, being here.”

The two fell into small talk, then. Chloe learned a bit more about this Max-who-was-not-Max. She was an only child, had a small gray kitten when she was growing up, and loved to paint.

“Been thinking about picking up this photography thing that’s getting to be all the rage, as well”, the smaller woman said.

That was it, Chloe couldn’t take it anymore. She drained her beer, and set down some francs for their drinks. “You take care there, Oregon girl.” With a sad smile, she walked out into the French spring afternoon.

Her thoughts full of the girl that she had left behind, she didn’t see Kate walk into her. 

“Oof! What the? Kate!”

“I’m here for a surprise visit. I got some leave time, and knew you were here.”, the smaller blonde said. “What’s wrong, baby?”

Over Chloe’s shoulder, she saw the spitting image of Max Caulfield leave the bar, walking in the opposite direction. Kate’s eyes widened. 

“Oh. Oh, Chloe.”, Kate whispered in her ear. “She looks just like her.”

“I know. Goddammit, Katie! Why? Why did all of this shit have to happen?”

“I don’t know why. I’m just sorry this happened to you.”

They held each other, looking at the living ghost that walked away.

Vietnam

June 3, 1967

“That fucking redneck bastard”, Chloe growled. “How many more of us is he gonna feed to the meat grinder?”

“I dunno, Aaron.”, replied Sargent Frank Lakeland. “It’s like we’re all just chips, and these assholes are playing poker.”

Chloe, a.k.a Lt. Aaron Robertson, smirked. “Good ol’ boy Lyndon probably thinks that losing this war is like someone laughing at the size of his dick. That Strangelove movie hit it right on the fucking head, didn’t it? ”

The shorter man nodded, “I’m sure that war’s been like that for a long fucking time, Lieut.

Chloe had first hand experience of war being like that for a long fucking time. She always had to hold herself back from calling him ‘Waldo’, as he was almost a double for Warren Graham.

They were sitting together, on watch. Like Warren, Frank had a kind nature. ‘I guess him being a tryhard for Max kinda blinded me to Warren’s better qualities’, she thought. ‘He was still kind of a creep, though.’

“Hey, Lieut. What-”, Frank turned around, and saw a bullet hit Chloe in the throat. “What? SHIT!” 

Soon the jungle night was afire with the lights from pistols and machine guns. Screams of pain, anger, and fear filled the air. Then, they became moans. Then, silence.

Chloe sat there for what felt like an hour, until it felt safe enough. She stood up, and looked around the small temporary camp. Shaking her head, she sighed. No matter how long she fought, seeing her fellow soldiers die was never easy.

Leaning down, she closed Frank Lakeland’s sightless eyes. “You rest now, Warren. You rest.”

She looked off into the middle distance, and felt the need to go home. It wouldn’t be their real home, but, Portland called to her.

October 7, 2013

Minneapolis, Minnesota

United States Of America

Kate sat down on the kitchen chair, having just gotten done at the hospital. Being a doctor was hard work, and it tried her, on some days. Seeing the smiles on the kids faces, though, made it all worth it.

The apartment door slammed open and closed. Kate looked out into the living room. Her wife stood there, hands and forearms covered in the dirt and oil that came with working in an auto shop.

“K-K-K-Katy! Beautiful Katy! You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore!”, she called out.

The smaller woman walked over to her mate, reaching up to ruffle her bright pink hair. “Talk about a golden oldie”, she laughed, before she captured Chloe’s lips.

“Hey, do you-”, Chloe’s voice stopped. Kate noticed she was looking at the calendar.

“...Today,”, the taller woman said. “It’s today.”

“Today?”, Kate questioned. 

“Yeah, the day I...almost died.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “the bathroom… Nathan Prescott..”

Chloe nodded, eyes sad.

Kate put her hands on her love’s shoulders. “But, you didn’t die, Chloe. Max saved you.. saved us. And I’ll always be grateful to her for doing it.”

Pulling her forward, Chloe kissed her wife with all of the passion and love she could.

Leaning back, she saw Kate was slightly cross eyed. “Looks like I still got it”, the pink-ette smirked.

Shaking her head, the smaller woman smacked Chloe on the shoulder. “So, for supper?”

“Eh, I was thinking about going to the Five Guys, down in Dinkytown.”

“Sounds good, babe. After all we’re D.I.N.K’s, ourselves.”

With a laugh, the two exited the apartment.

The Terran Alliance Ship, Albert Einstein

Tuesday August 28, 2349

Chloe sat back in her chair. She was having a hell of a time trying to figure out this plague! Thank fuck it hadn’t gotten off of Earth yet.

She looked around at her lab, and smiled to herself. This would have been so amazing to her, when she was growing up. “Hell, I wasn’t sure we’d even have a civilization at all, after the nukes fell.”

The door to the lab whooshed open, and her wife stepped through.

“Well, Lieutenant Kate Price, to what to I owe the honor?”

Kate, wearing combat armor, moved over to Chloe. “Do I need a reason to see my wife, Doctor Chloe Price?”

“None at all. You know, if you had asked me, all those years ago, if I’d ever see you in the military, I’d have laughed.”

“Oh?”, Kate replied, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I thought that you were too.. well, too kind. But, I should have known that you’d be a protector, not a fighter.”

Kate smiled, and pulled Chloe in for a kiss.

Out of the corner of her eye, the tall, green haired beauty saw the calendar on the wall screen.

“It’s August 28th. Happy Millennial Anniversary, Katie Kat.”

“It’s been a thousand years?”, Kate said “Already?”

“Yup”, Chloe smiled. “One millennium down.”

“With so many more to go, I’m sure. And I’ll love every one of them.”, the shorter woman smiled, tenderly nuzzling against her wife’s neck.

**Author's Note:**

> After mentioning Chloe's various military stints in the first story, I thought to expand on some of them.
> 
> K-K-K-Katy was a popular World War One era song, written by Geoffrey O'Hara and sung by Billy Murray.
> 
> The poem Chloe says is from Gammer Gurton's Garland, a collection of English nursery rhymes published in 1784.
> 
> DINK means Double Income, No Kids. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed.


End file.
